Kingston 8GB CF Card's Review

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Introduction

August 2007

Kingston Technology offers three different lines in CF cards, from the budget friendly CompactFlash Standard, which is aimed at anything from mp3 players, PDA's and digital cameras. One step up they have CompactFlash Elite Pro, which has a much higher read/write speed and lower power consumption. This is aimed at the enthusiast to professional photographers. At the top of the line they have CompactFlash Ultimate 133X High Performance. These are the fastest CF cards kingston offers at the moment. The Ultimate line is also pre-loaded with OnTrack® EasyRecovery™ Professional 6.1. Kingston's Flash storage devices have connectors rated for more than 10,000 insertions. Kingston Flash controllers automatically lock out sections with bad memory cells, and move the data to other sections to extend the useful life and reliability of the flash storage device

Specifications

Kingston 8GB Ultimate 133X
Dimensions: 1.43'' x 1.68'' x 0.13'' (36.4mm x 42.8mm x 3.3mm) -CF Type 1
Speed Rating: 23 MB/sec. read & 20 MB/sec. write speed.
Price From: Discontinued (mail in rebate available, Ends August 31, 2007)

Kingston 8GB Elite Pro 45X
Dimensions: 1.43" x 1.68" x 0.13" (36.4mm x 42.8mm x 3.3mm) -CF Type 1
Speed Rating: 8MB/sec read & 6.75MB/sec write speed
Price From: Discontinued (mail in rebate available, Ends August 31, 2007)

Manufacturer's web site: www.kingston.com

Benchmarks

The buffer timing results were acquired by timing how long it took the Nikon D2H to empty the buffer after being filled with 26 shots. Each timing was done 5 times. Afterwards the fastest and slowest timing was discarded. The D2H was powered by the EH-6 and no lens was attached to the camera. The shutter speed was 1/1000 sec. The cards were formatted in-camera before each test. Lower is better i.e. faster Buffer emptying

The buffer timing results were acquired by timing how long it took the Nikon D200 to empty the buffer after being filled with 21 shots. Each timing was done 5 times. Afterwards the fastest and slowest timing was discarded. The D200 was powered by the EH-6 and no lens was attached to the camera. The shutter speed was 1/1000 sec. The cards were formatted in-camera before each test. Lower is better i.e. faster Buffer emptying

Verdict

On a D200 you can fit 476 Raw images on one card. On the Nikon D2H you get 1200 Raw images on one card with the Kingston 8GB. Having 1200 images on one card is not necessarily a good thing. If the card fails you loose 1200 images. For the Nikon D2H a 2GB card is better in my opinion which holds 319 Raw images. On the D200 the 8GB card comes in hand, a 2GB card only holds 121 Raw images on the D200, so a 8 GB card is perfect for 10+ MP cameras.

The Ultimate card is definitely worth it, both when it comes to the speed of the card, and the fact that you get OnTrack® EasyRecovery™ Professional 6.1 Included . Not to mention that the 8GB Ultimate 133x is $ 65 USD cheaper then the Elite Pro 8GB.

If you are a Pro user or you are in a hurry, the Ultimate series are for you. There is quite a difference between the Ultimate and the Elite Pro 8 GB cards. The big difference in speed is clearly visible when you copy from a card reader to computer, as well as on the buffer timings. The Ultimate card is on an average about twice as fast as the Elite-Pro card. In my opinion the 133x should be named the Pro card. Slow buffer emptying equals pictures that you will not get.
Kingston's CF cards comes with a lifetime warranty(10 year warranty in France, Germany and Austria)

Kingston 8GB Ultimate 133x
Features
Performance
Value

Kingston 8GB Elite Pro 50x
Features
Performance
Value

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